Fiction

Two men, Tommy and Petesy, stand on a stage. They’re side by side, but an ocean apart. Tommy’s a boxer in New Haven who’s taken a couple punches. Petesy is a tall man whose life in Belfast, Northern Ireland has made him smaller. They’re cousins who grew up seeing each other now and again. But they’re writing each other now because they’ve both lost a son to violence, and neither of them knows exactly how to go on.

New Haven’s Congressional delegation joined more than 100 anti-gun violence advocates on the steps of the New Haven Police Department Friday morning to call on federal lawmakers to support what they say are common-sense gun policy reforms, including a ban on bump stock devices and expanded background check rules.

Just before that event, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy visited the WNHH studio to talk about gun control, Iran and North Korea, and the response to Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico to create a picture of the ways in which the current administration is “truly and frighteningly groundbreaking” in its handling of challenges and crises.

The half-Chinese and half-African-American McCollum sisters have been speaking Cantonese at home all their lives. Thursday morning they put their linguistic talents to inspirational use, only they had to switch to Mandarin, the national dialect of China.

As night fell at Brick Oven Pizza restaurant on Howe Street, Kadir Catalbasoglu lifted a steaming spoonful of şehriye çorbasi — a tomato-based soup with thin noodles — to his mouth. It was the first thing he’d eaten since 3:17 that morning.

As the Jews of Warsaw struggled to stay alive during the early years of World War II, 15-year-old Helene Rosenberg was used to her older brother bringing her back a tchothke — Yiddish for a toy or some small token of normal life — whenever he was able to sneak out and back into the ghetto.

One day the tchotke the older brother gave Helene was an official-looking piece of paper. As he handed the document to her, he said, “This is going to save your life.”

Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy Friday blasted the Trump administration for the firing of 59 missiles at a Syrian air base, saying responses to Syrian war crimes should be better thought out as part of a strategy crafted in conjunction with Congress.

As she mourned her adopted country’s turn away from a world humanitarian crisis, Vietnamese refugee Trinh Truony found a reason to maintain hope — with the help of eight stuffed suitcases from New Haven.